Monday, January 3, 2011

The Job of finding a Job!!

posted by Dean DaCosta

The Job of finding a Job!!

That is right finding a job is a job, if you cannot commit a minimum of 3-4 hours a day looking, than you will lessen your chances of success. So were to start? What to do first? Well the first you need to decide is what you want to do. What kind of job do you want? What kind of company do you want to work for?

Once you have figured that out, you need to write a resume, learn how to write a cover letter, a thank you letter, and other job hunting communications. I will discuss these in a separate posting.

So you have your resume and it is time to make a search plan. A search plan is basically the places, resources, and methods you will use to search for a job. Let’s look at some of these:

Social Networking: LinkedIn, Twitter, Zoom Info, etc.. You need to create your brand (see my post on social networking). You need to google yourself and see what is out there about you. Join groups on LinkedIn and Twitter and be involved. Answer questions in the groups on LinkedIn, show you have knowledge and are not afraid to share it. Make sure you have a professional profile on Zoom Info. One big key is to remember anything posted on social networks is viewable and trust me companies are looking. Also keep in mind some of these social networking sites, have areas dedicated to job hunters and jobs such as tweetmyjob and more. In addition there are tools out there than can make social networking easy, such as tweetdeck and jobdeck. These tools allow you to post, and monitor the main social networking sites and most of the sub-sites, like the ones above all at once. Remember while I have listed allot of tools and sites, I have not listed them all.

Job boards: These are the Monsters, Dices, Careerbuilder, etc… Remember you need to not only search, but post your resume as well. These sites are also good places to do research. Also look for niche boards that cater to the types of jobs you are most interested in.

Companies: While job boards and social networking are great, they still do not hit every place. You need to check company websites as well. A good place to find allot of the companies in your area is LinkedIn, you can also check the below web address: http://www.hoovers.com/100003475-1.html .

Associations and Alumni groups: These can be very effective networking tools, and allot of their own websites with job boards, such as SHRM (Society of Human resource Management).